Reader's view: We need access to health care

Greg Mayville

Published 8:47 am, Thursday, May 18, 2017

To the editor:

“Nobody dies because they don’t have access to health care.” Really?

Can you imagine believing such foolish nonsense. Yet that is what Republican U.S. Rep. Raul R. Labrador stated recently. Republican House members like Labrador and 4th District Rep. John Moolenaar would have you believe this type of nonsensical blather. All because they want to give a tax cut to the wealthy to the tune of $880 billion dollars. It is amazing the excuses and false characterizations they make up just so they can give a huge tax cut to the wealthy at the expense of ordinary American lives.

Just one example of their false characterization of the bill that recently passed the House is the lack of adequate coverage for pre-existing conditions. Current law forbids insurance companies from denying coverage or charging higher rates for people with pre-existing conditions. Republicans though are having a hard time explaining that their health care plan would weaken protections for people with pre-existing conditions. Why you ask? This is because their legislation paves the way for insurers to charge people with pre-existing conditions higher rates. Thereby effectively dropping them from health care coverage when those rates are jacked up so high many cannot afford them. Moolenaar voted for this bill! His spin in a letter to me, “States will also have the option of receiving assistance to help insure high cost and high-risk individuals, to support high-risk pools, reinsurance programs and cut out of pocket costs should they choose to obtain a waiver to craft their own plans.” What Moolenaar does not tell you is that the money he wants to allocate to these high risk pools is completely inadequate. He and the other Republicans who voted for this bill were called out this past Sunday by a fellow Republican, Ohio Gov. John Kasich. Asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper about the high-risk pool plan, Kasich said it simply wouldn’t work. “This business of these (high)-risk pools, they are not funded enough. It’s ridiculous,” he said, laughing. “There would be no reason to move to a high-risk pool, because a high-risk pool is not funded.”

There are other examples as well including Medicaid coverage that will throw millions more off of health care coverage. In all, it was estimated by the Congressional Budget Office for the previous version of the bill that more than 24 million people will be thrown off or denied health care coverage due to Moolenaar.

Don’t let Moolenaar fool you with his false characterizations of this health care bill. It is really about a tax cut for the wealthy. It does not guarantee health care coverage for pre-existing conditions. Yes, this new bill will likely cause more people to die earlier. It was estimated with the last bill before the house in March that 17,000 additional people would die in the first year due to the Republican bill proposed at that time. This bill is even worse. Maybe it’s time to invite Rep. Dan Kildee from the nearby 5th District to our 4th District to give us some straight talk on what this health plan really does. How can the Republicans say “Nobody dies because they don’t have access to health care”? Foolish nonsense indeed.